Trees Talking
by chibird
Summary: Little Goten gets lost in the forest near his house and gets help from a complete stranger who seems to know his father. Kind of weird.


Trees Talking  
  
Author's Note: I know this DBZ story is a lot on the strange side but I got the image while remembering a story my Grandma once told me. Funny how things from your childhood can get mixed up with your current interests.  
  
Disclaimer: DragonBallZ and its characters do not belong to me although the OC in this does. You have better things to do than sue me right? I am merely a poor uni student and the only thing you'll get of any value at all is my extensive cereal toy collection.  
  
  
Goten frowned as he pushed through the bushes. He'd come across yet another unfamiliar area of forest and much as the six-year-old hated to admit it, it was starting to scare him a little.  
  
I wish I could fly already, he thought. His brows were drawn together in frustration and he walked further into the clearing. The canopy above made the clearing very dark except for a large round ellipse of dappled sun that ate into a rounded mound of rock in the middle of it. Inside, the tunnel was very dark and exuded quiet menace that piqued Goten's curiosity whilst simultaneously repelling him urgently away. Unseen breezes caused the ancient cobwebs to shift and flutter as though the tunnel was drawing breath.  
  
Curiosity won and the little boy walked to the mouth of the cave. "Hello?"  
  
Where was the harm, he wondered as he looked into the tunnel opening, in following it to see where it led to? He started to take a step before hesitating, eyes wide in fright. Had something in there moved?!  
  
This wouldn't do. He thought to himself. He was half-Saiyan and everyone told him his daddy was the greatest warrior there ever was. If he could see him now, he was sure he didn't want to see his son starting at shadows. His eyes narrowed and small fists clenched as he took another step into the cave mouth.  
  
"That would not be a good thing to do, little man." A soft, whispering voice told him.  
  
Goten jumped back from the gaping maw of the forbidding cave opening in surprise. He hadn't heard anyone creep up behind him and he had better hearing than most kids his age. And most older kids too...  
  
"Wha... Who's there?" He asked the empty clearing behind him defiantly, arms up in front of him defensively. Moving quickly into the fighting stance taught to him by his mother and elder brother, he scanned the dense greenery for the intruder.  
  
There was an expectant pause before the owner of the voice akin to that of leaves rustling in the wind stepped out from behind a nearby tree. She was, Goten decided, quite the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen - and by far the strangest.   
  
She stood lightly on the balls of her feet, small and delicate with long, slender legs for her frame and a very solemn expression. Her wild mane of leaf green hair poured down her back in waves nearly reaching her knees and did nothing to conceal her nakedness. Eyes the yellow of autumn foliage observed him with vague amusement out of a face tinted the same dark brown of the trees surrounding them.  
  
Eyes, he decided, shouldn't be that colour.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
One delicate, green brow quirked elegantly upwards and she gave him a small smile. "A friend, young Goten. And a guide..." She turned away from him and threw a look over her shoulder. "Come I will lead you home..."  
  
Goten froze. His mom had told him it was not a good thing to follow strangers and a stranger this woman definitely was. He'd never seen her in his life and the way she'd said his name so familiarly unnerved him greatly. Torn, his gaze flitted between a random opening in trees and the green-haired lady.  
  
The woman turned and sighed. The wind ruffled Goten's unruly, black spikes and he shivered involuntarily.   
  
"I will not hurt you." She extended a small, slim hand and placed it on her chest before dropping it to her side. "You have my word, little one. If I intended to do so, I would have acted while you were unaware of me."  
  
That was true. Goten thought to himself. He hadn't heard a sound from the woman and from the looks of things, she'd probably been watching him the whole time he'd been lost.  
  
Realizing he'd just have to trust her word for the time being, Goten shrugged off his doubts and walked to the woman's side. In reflex, as he did with Gohan and his mother, he reached up sliding his tiny hand into her palm. Amber eyes flitted to him quickly and a delicate green brow was raised but the woman said nothing.   
  
Together, the two left the clearing and the open mouth of the creepy cave to their normal solitude. In the infinite darkness of the cave, the creature that wore the form of a fair, human male gnashed it's many pointed teeth in frustration at the annoying tendency of the forest spirit to thwart him of a good meal.  
  
******  
  
Goten peeped up at the green-haired woman for the fifth time in as many minutes as the walked. He couldn't help it. He really wanted to ask...  
  
"Miss...?"  
  
"Yes?" The woman's yellow eyes looked at him from the corner of her eyes. "Ask what you will, little one. I will not be offended. I promise." He saw only half of her smile as she continued to face straight ahead.  
  
He sighed and looked at his small hand entwined with her not much larger, dark-skinned one.  
  
"I just..." He frowned, changing his mind. "Why do you know my name?"  
  
"A fair question." The woman gave a small smile that softened her facial expression. She gestured around with a hand making Goten look carefully around at the dense, closely growing shrubbery. "The trees see many things and they enjoy telling me many stories... They are the ones that told me you were lost. It was through them I found you."  
  
Goten wasn't sure how he should reply to that. "Oh." He said.  
  
"So trees can talk?"  
  
"To me? Yes..." A dark hand caressed the bark of a very large oak. "They spoke to your father too and although he did not speak their language he understood them..." Yellow eyes met black and then the still nameless woman smiled at him a bit sadly. "They miss him."  
  
Goten looked around at the forest and then down at his feet. Everyone seemed to know his father except him.  
  
"Do you know my daddy?"  
  
"We were never introduced formally but you could say that we met..." The lady held back a low branch so that Goten could continue walking without having to jump over it. "The trees knew him much better."  
  
"Could I talk to the trees too? Can you teach me?"  
  
"Hmph..." The lady bent down on one knee and looked Goten in the eye. "That is a skill that cannot be taught Son of Goku and we have reached your home."   
  
Goten looked at where she had gestured and noted that she was right. There was the familiarity of his house with white sheets hanging to dry in the afternoon sun. Grey-white puffs of smoke rose from the chimney, a sign that his Mom was most probably starting dinner. He wasn't lost anymore. He really should thank the pretty lady for bringing him back.  
  
But, when he turned around, she was nowhere in sight. There was not a sign that she had ever stood just behind him. He sighed. He didn't want her to think he wasn't glad she'd helped him get home. So he did what he thought was the next best thing.  
  
Addressing the nearest tree, he whispered to one of its branches.  
  
"Could you thank the pretty lady for me?"  
  
His task done, Goten ran towards his house shouting to his mom that he was home.  
  
******  
  
In the tree that Goten had spoken too, the woman who had led the little warrior home smiled to herself. She did not regret the vow she'd made all those years ago when she'd first met Son Goku.  
  
The vow she'd made despite the knowledge that he would never be hers. The vow to protect everyone he loved from harm knowing that she would never be one of them.  
  
Oh, she had been bitter and she stayed bitter for a number of years but... This little one... The trees had told her much of him. He would need the protection and perhaps some of her guidance.  
  
Silently, the guardian of the forest leapt to the ground and walked away from the family and home of the mortal she loved.  
  
The End. 


End file.
